Friday, January 30, 2009

RAW

I'm becoming more and more engrossed with photograpy that I can't finish a day without having to press the shutter button and tell a story through a photograph. I would even have dreams of shooting something that I have no idea what, where, or how. And in this effort, I have somehow successfully engaged my mind and creative juices to push myself to its limits and not confine my art to something I started out with.

I've long been hearing about the RAW file format (and its many extensions and types) and wondered what it does and why is it necessary. Testing every bit of Akita, I found out about her capability to use a raw format. Then I thought "What's the fuss about this RAW blah blah anyway?", but then again, I have to try it out myself to see if it's really what most experienced photographers claim as the digital negative. Reading through the forums and wiki, I have been intrigued by the thought of further editing the raw image, controlling the exposure, depth, brightness, contrast, etc. as you would have already done via the camera and converted it to JPEG/TIFF. Since as much as possible, I would want better control over my photos and I guess, I found just the right solution and the new style. Though fairly speaking, I might have to invest on higher capacity memory cards and backups to contain these files.

Most probably, the next photos you'll be seeing on my gallery are from RAW, which would explain this blabbering. As of this moment, there are three things I'm busy with in connection to this. These are LightZone, UFRaw, and the RAW wikis for that matter. I'm wishing this endeavor would be successful as I would have thought. ^_^

Monday, January 26, 2009

Camera Focus Check Function

I have been disappointed recently with some of my unfocused shots. Since looking over my tiny LCD would tell me they are fine (in a very reduced scale), but zooming over the entire image would show an amount of blur due to unfocused subjects. I have been figuring out how to zoom my view in realtime. And during our photoshoot with my friend, I realized I could overcome this by using digital zoom and checking over the focus of the subjects in manual focus mode, but since my camera's button for digital zoom is far from my shutter button, there's a great tendency of misplacing my subject, that's what I have been using until just now.

I discovered a function in my camera that solves exactly the problem I'm having. It's called the "focus check function" which is only a couple of centimeters away from the shutter button. It zooms the center part of my image to check the focus. But I have only achieved so after setting my EVF/LCD frame rate to 30fps from 60fps. The 30 frames per second difference didn't matter at all to me, since I don't need to have a smoothly animated view on my screen/viewfinder, what I need is a sharp, crisp focus.

Using manual focusing, photometry modes, and focus check, I'm more than happy with Akita (my camera) right now. ^_^

Thanks again, Renderosity!

Once again, I'm thanking the Renderosity (http://www.renderosity.com) Photography Staff for featuring one of my photos in their Last Week in the Gallery. I never thought "Love Thirsty" would get that much attention. I was planning on scrapping the photo before because it seemed incomplete and dry to me but then again I thought how much effort I went through it and just went over and submitted it. Thanks so much. Below you can see the image. ^_^

Sunday, January 25, 2009

PinoyBlender Development

It has already been a year already since we started up PinoyBlender User Group or most commonly known as PBUG. I'm so amazed at how fast the growth had been and how active the members have become. It was born with a committed heart and a serving hand. I'd just like to take this time to thank each and everyone who made PBUG a great success and who shared their thoughts on anything and everything. To the members who continually support the user group, to guests who add traffic, and of course to the untiring and dedicated administrator, thank you so much!

Right now, we're busy setting up new threads and discussions to involve even a greater number of audience and of course we're planning something for each and everyone of you, with a heart of a Filipino.

To those of you wondering up to this point, what the hell is PinoyBlender, go check our website at http://www.pinoyblender.com and there you'll see a bunch of topics, threads, etc. But first off, I suggest you read our info just so you know what we are. Thanks.

Your truly,
Reyn

Friday, January 23, 2009

Eureka!!!

I just found out the perfect solution to my photos! What is it you may ask? GO MANUAL! I've been etchy about these Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority modes but what I haven't noticed that long was that I did have control over my focus, speeds, etc. but I didn't really control overall my image. Just recently, I've been trying to do sharp-focused images with just the right amount of exposure and a very blurry background for emphasis, and I did so with the manual mode. I don't even have to worry about compensating the exposures for this matter since the meter would do great.

*Reyn does more experiments with Akita*

Monday, January 19, 2009

SILIP Photoshoot

I have been very very busy the past days, mostly figuring out how to start things right and kicking some stress away.

Just last Friday, I was invited by our former school Dean to join a photography club here in La Union and asked us to come on the photoshoot session that will be happening in a few days.  Without knowing anything about the background of the club, I immediately said yes (and I do that "yessing" 80% of the time just so you know).  With these in mind and getting very excited about it, I called my fellow photography enthusiast to come along as well.  

And so the day of blastin' off has come. It was Sunday dawn and it's so ridiculously funny to remember how late I slept the night before and so early to wake up the day of the event.  I just slept 3 hours but I felt no hangs at all.  And so off we went, meeting the other members (which I'm very pleased to), who were so kind and generous.  I soon then realized what the club name SILIP stood for, "Seeing Images of Life in Photography".  Most members were employees of newspapers and tabloids and other journalism companies.  So you could just imagine how huge and drooling their cameras were. It was a long way trip, but the distance didn't seem like it at all, it was like running across the road and there we were.  The itenerary was a bit daunting and surprising at first, but as we went along, I could have wished there was more.

We took photos of sunrise, layers of mountains, leaves, flowers, stones, rivers, bridges, people, and a whole lot more.  What's even more pumping was the thought that we were eight convoy cars in total, rushing the road like a caterpillar. The whole session lasted for how many hours.  Starting from dusk until around 3pm in the afternoon. But I wished there were sunset photos too but sadly, most members have to be home early so we separated ways before the sun could even hide herself.

To sum it up, it was a total success and a super excited trip! It almost felt like a field trip, or did it already? ^_^

This blog post would be better off without the pics but there you go, some pics of the photoshoot.  See them below:






















Thursday, January 15, 2009

Net Vacation

It's been two days already since I have been literally disconnected from the internet. I just learnt there was something wrong with how our ISP does their system, darn that system really.  Anyhow, I'm back on the web and will be posting more updates soon.

Wish me luck. ^_^

Monday, January 12, 2009

Christmas Gift-giving

It's been awhile since I last updated my blog that is outside art/photography. This might seem too late as of the date of the event, but it's better late than none at all.

Last December 26, 2008, just after Christmas Day, me and my family held a small gift-giving and feeding program (if it's the right term) for the indigent children around our area, but apparently, not only kids were involved but some parents and grandparents as well. We do this event every 26th of December for the sole reason of making other people happy and making them feel the season despite their stature in life. This had been the happiest of all the gift-givings we've had. So many people were here and everyone left with a happy smile on their faces.

It's so heart-warming and touching to see these kids laugh and appreciate what we've done for them, and their cutest "Thank you, po" is the most satisfying of all. One group of children even had their dance steps prepared for that day and watching them simply puts a tender smile on my face and I tried to feel what these kids had in mind during that time. Though most of them haven't had their noche buenas or even just a plate of food to eat on the Eve of Christmas, I'd hope that small offering we did for them was enough to make their hearts smile and be grateful of their lives and the people around them.


Below are the photos I took with my phone (which my dad gave me):









Renderosity LWITG 2 Feature

(click to enlarge)

I'm so glad again that Renderosity has chosen one of my recent uploads to be featured in their Last Week in the Gallery 2.  I'm even more fueled to pursue this passion in parallel to graphic design.  And yet again, there's so much I have to learn.  ^_^

Here are the links to the gallery feature:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2760477

http://backroom.renderosity.com/~photo/LWitG_09/LWitG_2.html

Thanks so much. ^_^

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Drown

Yet another photography post from me. ^_^

Out of 53 shots and adjustments, this is what I came up with. Hope you like it. ^_^


Accessories include:

- drinking glass
- lanzones
- round studying table
- black cloth
- flashlight
- dining chair
- clamp
- 2 encyclopedias
- 2 dictionaries
- marble
- 2 transparent spheres

(click to enlarge)

Monday, January 5, 2009

Renderosiy Last Week in the Gallery Feature

In behalf of the Renderosity staff, I'm thanking each and everyone who has appreciated one of my photographs submitted. I never really thought it could be chosen for that matter.

I am very grateful that Renderosity has taken notice and has featured my artwork Journey in their "First LWITG for 2009". Thank you so much!

You can see other featured photographs as well here > The first LWITG for 2009

Akamaru's Birthday!

YipeeEe! It's Maru's (one of my 5 dogs) 1st birthday today! What am I gonna give him today? HmmMMm? Lots of meat probably. ^_^ Happy happy birthday, Maru! Send him your gifts, please. Harhar!

He's the most persistent of all the dogs we have. And the only one who doesn't have a blood relation with the other four.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Here Kitty Kitty

This is by far the most difficult shot I have ever made. Shooting this stray cat posted harder challenges than I could imagine. We were in an alley with lots of withered leaves on the ground, we were about 8 meters away from each other and every step on a leaf would pose a threat to the peaceful cat.

Took this photo in the school where I graduated at.  There were few people around and the wind was cold but the sun still shining so bright.  At the alley, there was only me and the cat.

(click to enlarge)

Saturday, January 3, 2009

My First Sunrise Shot

After waking up so early in the morning to stroll and feed our dogs, I took an early morning breath and stroll and was lead on to rest over at the bench just beside the basketball court infront or house. I was just looking blankly into the air when this scene flashed past my sight. So I took Akita off my lap, looked through the lens, and shot.

(click to enlarge)


Thursday, January 1, 2009

Mon-mon Portrait

This was a quick shot me and my younger brother did while we were at the beach. I guess it turned out quite fine with some shadows casted over on his right part, just the right side lighting I have imagined during that time of sunset.

(click to enlarge)

HelooOo 2009!

Happy New Year to all!!! Boom! As a present to each and everyone of you, animals and monsters included, here's a short vid presented to you by my family, shot just outside our house.  Yay for the display! Pardon the noise, you know how it gets when welcoming the new year. ^_^